My 59% return in 2005
Last week's stats on top-performing funds spurred me today to check on how my own modest holdings had fared in 2005.
My colleagues in the office will confirm how smug I was this time last year after backing the Jupiter Emerging European Opportunities fund in 2004. It had another good year and is one of only two funds to make the top 20 two years running.
So it's time for me to be smug again - the return in 2005 was 59% after returning 45% in 2004 and 45% the year before that. It also backs Russian energy firms and so is therefore feeling the benefit of the current gas price war with the Ukraine that has pushed up the share prices of those firms. But the story of Eastern European funds is not just about Russia's vast gas reserves, there's also the benefit of European Union expansion.
However, the rally might not last - past performance should not be used as an indicator of future returns. I had high hopes that the US stock market would return to rude health in 2005 (it was a very strong performer in the Nineties) so I backed the Legal & General US index tracker (a low-charging fund that aims to mirror the market). It managed to muster a 18% gain in 2005. That would be brilliant in a normal year but even Britain's own FTSE 100, which has historically lagged American shares in the past few decades, managed a 20% profit.
You can't win 'em all.
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